


Stay Strong, Arnold Rimmer

by TayBartlett9000



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Bullying, Courage, Hope, Looking to the Future, M/M, Violence, childhood meetings, life - Freeform, offering the hand of friendship, pre-red dwarf, standing up for someone, ten year old Rimmer, unhappyness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 03:51:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10528389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TayBartlett9000/pseuds/TayBartlett9000
Summary: Arnold Rimmer and David Lister did meet once, long ago, when both were just children. At the age of ten, Dave Lister meets Rimmer in a disused play park, and offers the hand of friendship after seeing the  results of Arnold Rimmer's abuse at the hands of his three older brothers. How will Rimmer feel about this unknown jesture of kindness?





	

Stay Strong, Arnold Rimmer.

By Taylor Bartlett.

 

Arnold Rimmer heard the cat calls and jearing from half way across the quiet  play park.

The voices of his older brothers were still dying away, their  shrieks of barely controlled laughter still ringing in both the distance and  in Arnold Rimmer’s ears as he sat on the  broken swing, looking straight down at the dirty ground. His face was still red with shame, and was blotted with blood and the numerous purple-blue bruzes that covered it. His eyes were shining with unshed tears, tears that  he certainly could not and would not display before his brothers or even his mother. As the miserable ten year old sat motionless on the damaged swing set, he continued to listen to the unkind words and verbal abuse that was still being poured over his head by his brothers. At this moment in time, young Arnold Rimmer felt decidedly unloved.

The day had started out unexpectedly well, even for him.   Arnold had woken up  unusually early, after Frank and Howard had  thrown  cold water over his head to startle him back into consciousness. Half an hour later, Arnold was out in the streets, being led to the nearest playground by John, Frank and Howard.

Surprised by what Arnold had thought was a sudden and unusual display of brotherly affection, he had willingly tagged along, thinking that for the first time in ages, the older boys actually wanted him around.   ‘This is a nice change,’ Arnold had thought to himself, smiling slightly as he fought to  catch up with the others.

The four boys had ridden their bikes down the quiet country lanes of their small hometown. They had been full of laughter that day, something else that had not happened for ages. Even young Arnold Rimmer had laughed, joining in with the others’ jokes and even making the others laugh a  few times. It had been a lovely morning. Rimmer had been happy.

But then again, when things seem too good to be true, they probably are. As things always did in the life of Arnold Rimmer,  the  morning quickly turned sour. After tighing up their bikes, the three elder Rimmer brothers turned on Arnold,  using his body as a metaphorical  goal post in a game of football. The  rules of the game were fairly simple and straight forward. If any of the boys managed to hit Arnold in the face with the ball, that boy would have scored a goal. Needless to say, every one of the three older boys was  incredibly good at this. They hit him with the bloody ball every single time, and before long, young Rimmer was begging them to stop hitting him and for God sake just leave him alone.

This, they refused to do. To the three older boys, Arnold was nothing more than a paun in their cruel games. They kept up the cruel version of football for some time before giving up and slinking off elsewhere, leaving Arnold alone, bruzed and miserable.

He wandered blindly across the park and took a seat on one of the few swings that still  functioned, all be it barely as a swing. He slumped down onto it, staring fixedly at the ground, unwilling to look up for a moment  should  his siblings come back and find him close to tears.

Arnold Rimmer was rapidly growing  fed up of the life that he had been forced to lead for the past  ten odd  unhappy years. He was sick of his  brothers’  constant torment of him. He was fed up to the back teeth of being bullied at home, bullied  at school, but worst of all, being bullied by his own family. His mother had grown tired of him. His father cared not much for him, and his brothers  had always been sure to let  Arnold know that as often as they could. ‘You’r useless,’ they told him scathingly at every opportunity. ‘You’re a complete bastard and we all hate you.’  

There was no doubt about it, Arnold Rimmer wanted to get the smeg out of the shithole that he lived in, and the people who he was forced to spend his   unwilling time with.

“Hay, you alright?”

Arnold Rimmer’s head snapped up, and he  quickly blinked the furious tears out of his eyes.

A young boy of about nine or ten stood before him, his hair untidy and his eyes staring at Arnold in obvious concern. Looking over the boy’s shoulder, Arnold checked to see whether the boy had anybody with him. He could  see no one and so returned to looking incredulously at this young and rather scruffy individual. His  clothes were certainly not the tidiest, and  that is  putting it mildly. His face was stained with mud and his hair was in an untidy mess. If the appearance driven Mrs Rimmer had clapped eyes on the young lad, she would have surely fainted with shock.  The boy was just standing there in front of Arnold,  staring at him, quite unafraid and unabashed.

“Who are you?” Arnold asked, trying hard to sound polite and confident, though he was in no  mood to do either.

The stranger only smiled at him, quite unperturbed by his tone.  “I’m Dave,” the kid told him, a smile of a rather stupid kind spreading across his face. “Who are you, mate?”

“Arnold Rimmer,” replied Arnold, sitting up a little straighter as he did so and eyeing Dave calmly. “What do you want?”

The boy who had called himself Dave mearly smiled again and walked over to a swing nearby and  sat down upon it, swinging gently back and forth and looking curiously around at the broken playground equipment. It was evident that the sight of the broken swings, the smashed climbing frame and the damaged slides did not please him in any way, shape or form.  “What are you doing here?” he asked after a short spell of silence, “I didn’t think anybody would want to come and play in this dump.”

Arnold paused for a moment. “I was taken here by my brothers,” he said finally, after wondering what would be the  best thing to say.

“What? You mean those loud mouthed tossers in the street?” Dave asked with no degree of tact what so ever.  

Arnold Rimmer nodded, caring not at all that the kid had just insulted his brothers. He certainly did not have any siblingly affection for them, and would not stand up for them.  “Yeah,” he said quietly, face growing unhelpfully red as he did so.

“Were they having a go at you or something?”

“What makes you think they were having a go at me?” snapped Arnold, much too quickly to be called natural.

Dave shot him a reassuring sort of smile. “I don’t think you could have bruzed your face that badly on your own,” he said, voice gentle and   compassionate as he looked at the livid bruzes upon Arnold’s  face. He then smiled again, jumped off  the swing and added, “would you like me to go and beat them up for you?”

A smile touched Rimmer’s face as a warm glow of something unfamiliar blossomed inside  his heart. This boy, a kid  whom he knew nothing what so ever about was more than willing  to stand up for him. That was something that Arnold had never known. The surprise was almost too great to   comprehend in one sitting.

“No, it’s fine,” he said finally after considering the matter. He did not want this small ten yearold to get hurt because of him. He had no need to   anyway.  Dave’s solid display of reassurance was more than enough to cheer him up.

Dave smiled back and went across to Arnold, giving him a playful shove  once he reached  him. “Ok mate,” he said consolingly, “if that’s what you want. But keep your head up? Ok? Stay strong. You won’t be a kid for much longer. A few more years and you’ll be able to get rid of them for ever.”

That made Arnold smile even more as he to stood up, preparing to leave the park. “Thanks,” he muttered  awkwardly, not at all sure what to say. He could only smile.

“Perhaps I’ll see you another time then?”  Dave called over his shoulder as he raced  out of the park, giving the other boy a swift  glance as he went on his merry way.

“See  you,” Arnold called back, watching as Dave tore round the nearest corner and out of sight.

Rimmer stood there for a moment, mind reeling in confusion over this very strange meeting with Dave. Little did Arnold Rimmer know,  he would indeed meet Dave again, on a  large mining ship in fifteen years time.  Little did he know that he would spend the rest of his natural life with Dave, and  would spend even more time with the guy after his own death. How would he feel fifteen or more years later when he again made contact with David Lister? Not a soul could have possibly predicted the future outcome, that a  childhood meeting  would result in the two resenting and loving each other at the same time.

It is an odd thing, the future. Impossible to predict, and even harder to  avoid. Only time would tell.


End file.
